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Saturday, September 26, 2009

My 1st Review for The Vigilant Monkey: Ponyo on the Cliff

Not to blow my own horn again (but after all, this is my blog and I'll cry if I want to dammit!) but I wanted to mention that I am branching out once again. Writingly speaking that is. Joining Plume-Noire as my occasional contributary outlet, I can now call The Vigilant Monkey my home away from home.

My first review for the new online magazine (not just a film site but encompassing all of culture and media) is for the latest Hayao Miyazaki anime, Ponyo on the Cliff. My review can be read over at The Vigilant Monkey right now. I will be doing some more reviews for VM in the future (I suppose I am the critic-in-residence of sorts for the new zine). My next one will probably be for the undead comedy du jour, Zombieland (I'll let you know when the time is right).

1 comment:

Spirited Away is a popular choice, and I understand the enthusiasm it inspires--one reason people may be moved by this more than Ponyo is that the sense of danger and dislocation is so much more intense (my parents are pigs and I'm vanishing!).

My personal favorites, tho are Miyazaki's earlier epics--Castle in the Sky, and above all Nausicaa (it's like a perfected visualizatio0n of the manga onscreen--which you ought to read, if you think Miyazaki on film is at all moving).

But Ponyo ain't exactly chopped liver, I think. There's a disturbing subtext here, especially when Fujimoto is pressing back on Ponyo's efforts to transform herself. It's like a fother trying to force back his daughter's puberty--not a good thing to do, not if you have an ounce of sense.